Joncler’s dictionary

Poker words

Poker has a language of its own. Here is every word you’ll hear at the table, in plain words.

Browse by topic, or type a word to find it.

At the table

Button: The dealer’s seat. It acts last after the flop.
Small blind: The forced bet just left of the button, half the big blind.
Big blind: The bigger forced bet, two seats left of the button. Poncler counts results in big blinds.
Ante: A small bet everyone puts in before the cards are dealt.
Straddle: An extra blind, double the big blind, posted before the cards.
Under the gun: The first player to act before the flop.
Hijack: The seat two to the right of the button.
Cutoff: The seat just to the right of the button.
Heads-up: A hand or a game with only two players.
Stack: The chips a player has in front of them.
Effective stack: The smaller of two stacks: the most either player can win or lose against the other.
Hole cards: Your own cards, dealt face down.
Board: The shared cards in the middle of the table.
Flop: The first three shared cards, dealt together.
Turn: The fourth shared card.
River: The fifth and last shared card.
Street: One betting round: before the flop, the flop, the turn or the river.
Pot: All the chips bet in a hand, which the winner takes.
Side pot: A second pot for the players who still had chips when someone went all-in.
Showdown: Showing the hands left after the last bet, to see who wins.
Muck: To throw your cards away without showing them.

Check: Passing on betting when nobody has bet yet.
Bet: The first chips put in on a street.
Call: Matching the current bet.
Raise: Making the bet bigger, so others have to put in more to stay.
Fold: Giving up your hand and the chips you’ve put in.
All-in: Betting every chip you have left.
Open: Being the first to raise before the flop.
Limp: Just calling the big blind before the flop instead of raising.
3-bet: The first re-raise, after someone has raised. The raise after that is a four-bet.
C-bet: A bet on the flop by the player who raised before the flop.
Donk bet: A bet into the player who raised on the street before, by someone who acts first.
Check-raise: Checking, then raising when someone bets.
Min-raise: The smallest raise allowed: as much again as the last bet or raise.
Overbet: A bet bigger than the pot.
No-limit: A rule that lets you bet all your chips at any time.
Pot-limit: A rule that keeps every bet and raise at most the size of the pot.
Value bet: A bet with a good hand that you want worse hands to call.
Bluff: A bet with a weak hand, to make better hands fold.
Semi-bluff: A bluff with a draw, which can still become the best hand.
Slow play: Playing a strong hand weakly to keep others in the pot.

Pocket pair: Two cards of the same rank in your hand.
Suited: Two cards of the same suit. Offsuit means two different suits.
Connectors: Two cards next to each other in rank, like eight and nine.
Broadway: The cards from ten to ace, and the straight they make.
Wheel: The lowest straight, from ace to five.
Kicker: The highest side card, which breaks ties between equal hands.
Top pair: A pair with the highest card on the board.
Overpair: A pocket pair higher than every card on the board.
Set: Three of a kind made with a pair in your hand.
Trips: Three of a kind made with one card in your hand and a pair on the board.
Nuts: The best possible hand on this board.
Draw: A hand that needs more cards to become strong, like four cards to a flush.
Flush draw: Four cards of one suit, waiting for a fifth.
Open-ended: A straight draw with two ways to finish it, like six, seven, eight and nine.
Gutshot: A straight draw that needs one card in the middle, like five, six, eight and nine.
Backdoor: A draw that needs both the turn and the river.
Outs: The cards left in the deck that turn your hand into the likely winner.
Split pot: Two or more players with the same best hand, sharing the pot.
Bad beat: Losing with a strong hand to a lucky card.
Cooler: Losing a big hand to an even bigger one, where nobody did anything wrong.

Position: Where you sit compared to the button. Acting later is an advantage.
In position: Acting after your opponent after the flop. Out of position means acting first.
Range: All the hands a player could have in a given spot.
Pot odds: The price of a call: what you pay against what you can win.
Equity: Your share of the pot, from how often your hand wins from here.
Expected value: What a decision wins or loses on average, if you made it many times. Short: EV.
Implied odds: The chips you can still win on later streets when you make your hand.
Fold equity: What a bet gains from the times your opponent folds.
Blocker: A card in your hand that makes some of your opponent’s hands less likely.
Tight: Playing few hands. Loose means playing many.
Aggressive: Betting and raising more than calling. Passive is the opposite.
VPIP: How often a player puts chips in by choice before the flop, in percent.
Tell: A habit that gives away what someone holds, like betting faster with good hands.
Tilt: Playing badly because you’re upset.
Variance: The ups and downs of luck that even the best players have.
GTO: Game theory optimal: a way of playing that can’t be beaten in the long run.
Exploit: Changing your play to win more from an opponent’s mistakes.

Cash game: A game where the blinds stay the same and you can rebuy and leave when you like.
Tournament: A game where everyone starts with the same chips and plays until one player has them all.
Sit and go: A tournament that starts as soon as every seat is taken.
Blind level: How big the blinds are right now. In a tournament they rise every few hands.
Rebuy: Buying chips again after losing them.
Late registration: Joining a tournament after it has started, up to a set hand.
Bounty: A reward for knocking a player out of a tournament.
Short stack: A player with few chips compared to the blinds. A big stack has many.
Push or fold: With a short stack, going all-in or folding, and nothing in between.

Elo: A number for your skill that moves with your results in competitive Texas Hold’em.
Rank: Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond, from where your Elo sits among ranked players.
Competitive game: Texas Hold’em with the standard rules for up to nine players. It moves your Elo.
Friendly game: A game with the host’s own rules. It has its own game Elo and leaves your Elo alone.
Time bank: Extra time for a hard decision in competitive games, once your clock runs out.
Sit out: Staying at the table but skipping hands.
Run it twice: Dealing the rest of the board twice when players are all-in, each board for half the pot. Everyone in the hand has to agree.
Jokers: Wild cards a host can add. A joker becomes whatever card makes your hand best.
Real cards: Playing with a real deck at the same table, while Poncler keeps the chips and the bets.
HUD: A Poncler Pro panel with each player’s style in the current game.